Changeling
The Changeling is one of the hardest builders to play as, and is the only one with the ability to clone itself. It's abilities are based around it dividing and slowly growing into an army of itself big enough to take on the TItan, and it's ability to change forms for different situations. The information following this sentence is all written by MasterNerd and it was transferred over from sc2id.com. The Changeling is a support type builder, and is possibly one of the strongest support builders in the game. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about the Changeling. This will be more up to date, and I hope it helps you alot Note: The Changeling is ranked Hard for experienced players only, as it is tricky to play. The Different Forms The Changeling has 5 different possible forms, each of which are unique in their own way. This section will be covering it's forms and what they do. 'Changeling' This form is of course, the form you start with. Although it is weak, it is your source of lumber income, gold income, and produces structures. Note: Since the Changeling requires itself to build a structure, much like a Drone from ladder games, if you build an Extractor from the left of it, you will end up on the left side when you are finished. Use this strategy to prevent yourself from being trapped while building. Abilities: Slime Trail(Passive): Produces a trail of creep behind it, slowing titan's movement speed by .5 Although it mines gold slower than every other builder, it can replicate into 5 other changelings-- which of course is a much faster income then everyone else. Keep in mind when they replicate, their health is split and can be killed very easily. Replicating can only be possible if you have extra supply, (Extractors are 100 lumber and 5 gold a piece) and in the case that there is not enough supply in comparison to the amount of changelings, the remaining changelings will not grow. (Name for Regeneration) Allows the Changeling to gradually grow to full strength, 1% for ever 15 seconds. You cannot grow if you are under supply, so do be cautious on where you place your extractors. 'Mutalisk' The Mutalisk is the main escape form of the Changeling. It is faster than the titan, and provides a speed boost to nearby allies. Nothing except an archon can catch this form. It is advised to get 1 gold early in the game and purchase this mutation, as it will save you from almost everything early game. Abilities: Tempest(passive): Increases nearby unit's movement speed by .5''' ' Cripple: Cripples the target unit, slowing their movement speed. Cost: 1500w and 5g '''Keep in mind that the Mutalisk is not an attack form, it deals little damage in comparison to it's other forms. ' 'Broodlord' Because of the new patch, titans and minions have push priority making broodlings useless for trapping. However, Broodlords are not a complete waste, they are one of the best counters to Infested Terrans. If your base is being attacked by ITs, morph into Broodlord and the infested terrans will be blocked off from the more vulnerable parts of the base. If you don't have Broodlords, switch to Corruptors. '''Abilities: Blink: Teleports the Broodlord a short distance. Starting ability. Evoke: Teleports a target changeling to the caster, but at a price of long casting time. Cost: 1500w and 5g Optic Infection: Grants the target unit detection, but damages it over time. Cost: 2000w and 10g ' 'Corruptor' Possibly the strongest form, the Corruptor. It has a very strong attack, and all its upgrades/passives are focused on causing the maximum amount of damage. 5 corruptors can easily solo a mini if you micro them and make sure they don't get killed. It can also help support a base under siege, because of its passive. Abilities: ' Furious Mind(Passive): Increases nearby unit's and building's damage by +2. ' Infect: Causes the target unit to deal 40% less damage for a 10 seconds. Cost: 1500w and 5g Bestial Blast: Deals 200 damage to the target unit, plus the '%' of the caster. Cost: 2000w and 10g' ' Swarm Guardian Basically a moving wall, this is the Changeling's defensive form. It can not attack, but instead inflicts damage back to the attacker. A unique property of the swarm guardian is that when it is held in position, it is one of the few changelings that can somewhat hinder the titan's movement. '''Abilities: Barbed Armor(Passive): Gives nearby allies's units a 25 damage infliction for every time they are attacked. ' Replenish: Replenishes 500 HP to a target unit. Cost: 1500w and 5g Taunt: Makes the Swarm Guardian top priority of attacking. Good for saving an endangered ally or distracting during a siege. Cost: 2000w and 10g Early Game and Golding In the beginning, you should find a place that is close to gold and safe. When you are there make a Hive close to a tree, and start mining. An example of how to place your Hive:Once you get 150 wood, build an Infestation Pit near your hive and hotkey it. You can decide to get 500 wood after the Infestation Pit, or you can immediately go to gold. The choice is yours, but if you get 500 wood and rush 1 gold, you can get Mutalisk very early, making escaping easier. Getting Away Safely Now your next objective is to get 20 gold for 4 Extractors. It may take a while, but once you get 5 changelings, your gold will be racking up quick. Now, if you have 5 changelings, you need to know how weak they are. Even a level 1 nuke from any titan can kill them all in one shot, and that means bye bye, your a minion now. The best way to run from solo golding is to mutate 4 clings into mutalisks and run 1 out the opposite direction as a normal cling, and mutate it there. The reason is that the 2 seconds when morphing is enough time for a nuke kill. If it's demon you're dead. Although, when you finish morphing to a different form you get the same hp% that you had when you starting morphing. If there's a lot of builders golding then split your changelings onto two sides of the gold. Makes them harder to nuke.If the titan is not camping, start mining gold after you get all five changelings. I like to get Enhanced Assimilation for 30 gold total. If you have full supply and all these upgrades, your changeling will grow much faster, making them stronger. If you want, spend the next 3 gold you mine to buy the rest of the Transformations. That way you are prepared, incase a base is set up. If you have extra gold or wood, spend it on whatever you need from the Infestation Pit. If you are golding alot, get Mutalisk Adept Training, etc. Supporting Of course, the Changeling is meant to be a support builder. Almost every single form of the Changeling can help aid a fellow ally or support a base. This makes it very versatile and unique. Examples of what each form can do to help is below. ---- Mutalisk: Not much of a base supporter, but meant for helping allies escape/gold. A builder with a Mutalisk nearby has a movespeed of 4.1, which is slightly faster than the titan. Mutalisk is probably the best gold supporter for other builders-- which will help that Marine get the 45 gold he needs later in the game. Although the Mutalisk can Cripple the Titan during a siege to possibly kill or prevent from sieging the base, but the rest of its abilities are not particularly useful in a siege. ---- Broodlord: Broodlords are rather useless now, as titans and minions have push priority. The only useful usage of brood lords after the update is defending a base against infested terrans, which do not have push priority. The Broodlord's abilities are not base support worthy, except maybe Ocular Infection. This might be used in a horrible circumstance where titan is an infestor and is using burrow and heal, but when you have that much gold, it is highly unlikely that the base in question does not have detection of it's own. ---- Corruptor: The main attack form of the Changeling, this if you place these correctly, every single tower in a base can have +2 damage. This can mean a major difference in a siege, and not only is the Corruptor's passive ability good for bases, but it's abilities are even better. Infect makes the target unit deal 40% less damage, with 5 Corruptors you can have 1 titan and 4 minis infected, completely screwing up their attack. Bestial Blast can be used for support, but it's more of a finishing-off ability. The Corruptor is basically a whole army by itself, it can kill a level 6-7 titan if you use it's abilities right. If you get a minion/titan to half HP, and then using 5 Bestial Blasts it will be an almost guaranteed kill. ---- Swarm Guardian: Basically a mobile wall, the Swarm Guardian has alot of HP and high armor, along with a passive damage return buff. I guess you could use this for wall support or maybe stand at the worker line, but I don't see this used often. Using the Swarm Guardian itself as a wall can be done however, it has more HP than any wall in the game. The Swarm Guardian is good for armies though, it can heal TH's and other units, and also if Taunt can be used effectively, it can really make a difference on ganking a minion or titan. ---- Keep in mind that a properly set up base with a Changeling supporting it is very difficult to break. If you are absent and the titan tries to siege, it can really make a difference if you are not there to support it. Your base depends on you supporting it, so make sure you are golding/hunting at the right moment.This is an example of how you can get nearly every tower extra damage, and this will prevent titan from coming in too far with that extra damage he's taking. Late Game By now you should have at least 5 Changelings, and have some upgrades. If you are 100%, then depending on the circumstances victory is imminent. Now comes the stage of the changeling playstyle. Warning: If the titan in question has multiple immortal minis or is at a high level, the methods below will likely get you killed. Unite all your changelings into 1 Changeling, and the resultant will be a 400+ percent one. If you want, play around with the different forms and see just how high the stats go. Be advised, every few seconds of being in this united form saps your growth If you want to kill a mini or a titan, you must find a way to seclude a mini from the rest and wipe it out with corruptor form. If there are any minis nearby that have an ability such as graviton beam, you will likely die. The Transformation Asylum is 45 gold, and every upgrade in it is 10-15 gold with a decent amount of lumber cost. The upgrades you should buy first depend on what you are using. If you focus on using broodlords, get the Broodlord upgrades. If you plan on hunting down minions, get the Corruptor upgrades, etc. The most useful form in Late Game is probably Corruptor, because at this point you should start killing shit. Upgrades from the Transformation Asylum can help you do this, as the Expert Training upgrades increase your Attack damage as well. If all the minions are too high of a level and it is too dangerous to go outside, stick in your base. If titan decides to siege while you are gone it will be a bad scenario. Like I said, your base depends on you supporting it, so help defend when it is necessary. Sometimes, it's better to be bored than dead. Keep in mind that Omega Clings are slow, and with no Mutalisk near you, you cannot catch minions every time you try to kill. An Omega Corruptor also can only use Bestial Blast once rather than 5 times. Hunting Hunting is definitely not difficult for the Changeling, and there are many different kinds of combos you can try it with. Here is a list of what each form will help in a minion gank. Mutalisk: Movement Speed increase, Cripple Broodlord: Nothing, utterly useless with new patch. Corruptor: Attack increase, Infect, Bestial Blast Swarm Guardian: 25 damage infliction The combination you choose is completely up to you, if you like 3 Broodlords and 2 Corruptors, or 1 swarm guardian and 4 Corruptors, or even a mix of every form. Category:Builder